Swoosie Kurtz

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Swoosie was
born on 6t September, 1944 to author Margo and Frank Kurtz in Omaha,
Nebraska, USA. She is a famous American actress and has won the
coveted Emmy Award as well as the Tony Award (two times). Her father was an
U.S. Air Forcecolonel resulting in her frequent
relocation during her school years. To be exact, she had to live with having to
live in eight different states.

Swoosie made it
to the limelight through the revival of Ah,
Wilderness in 1975. She has been nominated five times into the Tony Award
and won two of them. These came through the 1981 Fifth of July and the 1986 The House of Blue Leaves.
The other nominations were for the 1988 Tartuffe, 2004’s Frozen
and the 2007’s Heartbreak House

She has been
nominated eight times for the Emmy Awards in her television work. In this
category, the 1990’s Carol and Company
gave her a win. She has earned other TV credits through Sisters of 1991 to 1996, 2004 to 2006’s Huff, Pushing Daisies of 2007 to 2009, as well as the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly which has been on since
2010. She has starred and featured in films like Wildcats (1986), 1988’s
Dangerous Liaisons, Stanley and Iris of 1990, 1996’s Citizen
Ruth and Liar Liar (1997).

Early life

Kurtz is the only child of Colonel Frank Allen Kurtz, Jr. and author
Margaret. It was her father who gave her the name Swoosie which comes from “The
Swoose”, the only early survivor of the of the Boeing
B-17D Flying Fortress Bomber piloted by her
father. Her father managed to break all the Pacific Records at the time of the
Second World War. Mr. Kurtz Jr. moved frequently due to her job causing is
family to move as well with him. Swoosie had to move with her father too.

As
part of her education, Swoosie attended the University of Southern California.
She opted for drama as her major. Thereafter she went to London Academy of
Music and Dramatic Art.

Career

Kurtz
made her first appearance on tv at the age of seventeen on the 4th
season episode of The Donna Reed Show “The
Golden Trap” of February, 1962. At eighteen, she made another appearance in To Tell the Truth in which she
identifies her father from among two imposters. She later began her theatre
career in 1975 through the revival of Ah,
Wilderness! Wendy Wasserstein’s Uncommon Women and Othersgave her a great breakthrough. She
appeared in this at a Eugene O'Neill Theater Center workshop as well as
Off-Broadway. The musical A History of the American Film also added to her rise in the film
industry. It helped her win the coveted Drama Desk Award. Kurtz was at the time awarded the famous
Broadway's "triple crown" which includes the Outer Critics Circle,
Drama Desk, and the Tony awards. This arose from her portrayal of Gwen in the Fifth
of July by Lanford
Wilson's.

In
1986, her performance in John Guare’s The House of Blue Leaves as
bananas earned her a second Tony award. In 2002, she also starred as Lillian
Hellman, a playwright, in Imaginary Friends by Nora Ephron.

Personal
life

Kurtz is neither
married nor has any child. The only revelation she has ever given is that she
had an abortion in the 60s.